The anencephalic organ donor: A challenge to existing moral and statutory laws

Abstract

Objectives:

To inform physicians of the critical shortage of neonatal heart donors and to provide arguments for and against selecting brain-absent anencephalics as heart donors for brain-normal infants who are dying of hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

Data Sources:

International scientific journals of medicine, genetics, epidemiology, bioethics, and public health; adjudicated U.S. civil court cases; and state regulations and statutes.

Organization of all data into either moral challenges or legal challenges to anencephalic organ donation.

Conclusions:

Statutory laws pose a greater challenge to anencephalic organ donation than moral laws. Case law reviews eliminate substituted judgment rulings in directing anencephalic organ donation. A redefinition of brain death applying only to human beings born without a brain would make more donor hearts available to brain-normal infants dying of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. (Crit Care Med 1993; 21:1781–1786)